Southeast Bulloch High School unveiled a new Freedom Shrine Monday in the common area of the school. Donated by the Exchange Club of Statesboro, the Freedom Shrine is a permanent installation of historical American documents emphasizing freedom and liberty.

Everyone thinks of drums when it comes to percussion. Well, for those who attended the first-ever "Day of Percussion" at Southeast Bulloch High School, they heard a lot more than drums. Cymbals, chimes, bells, marimbas, xylophones, triangles, wood blocks and tambourines were all on display.

Early Sunday morning, a stretch of the southern part of Bulloch County running parallel to Highway 46 near Nevils-Denmark Road got quite a jolt. The swath of severe weather that cut across Georgia left damaged homes in the Nevils area and even sent a school bus partly up a tree. Residents were still stunned by the damage Monday.

National Weather Service agents are still working to determine whether a storm that ripped apart a mobile home in the Nevils area, as well as caused damage elsewhere in the county, was in fact a tornado.

Thousands gathered Saturday at Paulson Stadium to celebrate and honor the Spring 2008 graduating class of Georgia Southern University. With more than 20,000 watching the 2,393 graduates, smiles, hugs and many tears of joy were easily seen in all directions.

Splash in the Boro opens Saturday, May 17 and workers are filling pools, putting out chairs and touching up the water park for its fifth season. After the May 17-18 weekend opening, Splash will be open every day from May 24-Aug. 3 and then weekends though Labor Day. Go to www.bullochrec.com or call (912) 489-3000 for more information.

Cold, slushy weather crawled across much of the U.S. on Monday, coating parts of several Southern states in snow, leaving highways dangerously icy in numerous states from New Mexico to Oklahoma to New England, and sending temperatures plunging to 25 to 30 degrees below normal across much of the country.

The Averitt Center for the Arts, through a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, is proud to bring renowned artist George Snyder to conduct a weeklong residency at Portal Middle School. Mr. Snyder will be working with art teacher Deena Scarborough as well as science teachers, math teachers and students from March 2–5.

Nontraditional sports are trending in the U.S., and the Statesboro-Bulloch County Parks and Recreation Department has responded to one of these trends by constructing a 27-hole Disc Golf Course on Mill Creek Road near Statesboro Airport, just off of U.S. Highway 301 North.

Redrawing attendance zones is a task Bulloch County Schools officials are approaching cautiously but say can no longer be delayed for some schools. The zones decide which schools students attend, or at least where a free school bus ride will take them.

Claxton resident Britnee Kinard received the prestigious Lincoln Caregiver Award last month in an exclusive award dinner ceremony, followed by a concert, at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Concert Hall in Washington, D.C.